{"id":29819,"date":"2018-08-31T03:54:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T10:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=29819"},"modified":"2018-08-29T17:01:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T00:01:00","slug":"coping-with-a-legacy-of-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/08\/31\/coping-with-a-legacy-of-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Coping with a legacy of loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claire Sicherman began writing Imprint: A Memoir of Trauma in the Third Generation<\/em> after her grandmother passed away. (photo from VHEC)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Claire Sicherman\u2019s grandmother didn\u2019t share much about her experiences in the Holocaust. There were three stories \u2013 one about bread in Auschwitz, another about her tattoo, a third about washing \u2013 none of them overly traumatizing. It was in the silences, though, in what her grandmother did not share, that Sicherman sensed the deep trauma permeating her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I grew up, there was a constant heaviness that I couldn\u2019t name,\u201d Sicherman told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cI grew up knowing about the Holocaust but not really knowing too much about my family\u2019s personal struggle with it, the stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her understanding of the Shoah came more from reading Anne Frank and watching Schindler\u2019s List<\/em> than hearing firsthand accounts from her grandmother.<\/p>\n

These unspoken traumas, conveyed across generations, are what Sicherman will speak about at the High Holidays Cemetery Service, an annual commemoration presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Schara Tzedeck Congregation and Jewish War Veterans. The event takes place this year on Sept. 16, 11 a.m., at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery, in New Westminster. Her presentation is titled Honour and Remember: Breaking the Silence in the Third Generation.<\/p>\n

Sicherman explored the topic in her book Imprint: A Memoir of Trauma in the Third Generation<\/em>, which she began writing after her grandmother passed away. (See jewishindependent.ca\/long-enduring-trauma<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my grandmother died, it was safer to start uncovering the silences,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s much safer for the third generation to explore the stories of their families. For the second generation, especially for my mom, for example, there was this not wanting to hurt her parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI experienced a bit of that when my grandmother was alive in that we just knew automatically not to ask certain questions, not to go there. For some of the second generation, the silence was a normal part of life. For others, the opposite is true. It was constantly talked about to the point that it became unhealthy that way. But, for my family, the silence was the norm. I think, in third generations, now you\u2019re seeing more people wanting to talk about it, wanting to get back and explore the roots and figure out what they are carrying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sicherman cites the relatively new science of epigenetics to suggest the weight of family history. As a response to that possibly inescapable legacy, Sicherman practises forms of yoga that release stresses in the body, journaling as a form of therapy and an Ayurvedic diet, which incorporates healthy foods and mindful eating rituals, all of which can potentially ameliorate the effects of inherited trauma.<\/p>\n

Sicherman\u2019s grandparents, who were from Prague, were the sole survivors in their respective families. They escaped communist Czechoslovakia in 1968 and settled in the Vancouver area. When Sicherman was 4 years old, her grandfather passed away. The cause of death, she was told, was a heart attack. In her 30s, Sicherman learned that her grandfather had committed suicide. This was another of the family\u2019s secrets.<\/p>\n

Despite the hidden past, Sicherman thought her family was entirely ordinary.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, growing up, it was really normal,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that what my family went through, what I was carrying, what everyone was carrying and not talking about, was not quite normal. For me, I thought I came from a Leave it to Beaver<\/em> kind of family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sicherman\u2019s dawning realizations of her family\u2019s story and the weight of that history represent a sort of metamorphosis, she said. The cover of her book features a caterpillar, a cocoon and a butterfly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sort of represents being third generation,\u201d she said. \u201cThe symbolism around the butterfly is one of transformation and I feel, in writing this book, I was able to carry the story of my ancestors in a different way, and that\u2019s where the transformation comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claire Sicherman began writing Imprint: A Memoir of Trauma in the Third Generation after her grandmother passed away. (photo from VHEC) Claire Sicherman\u2019s grandmother didn\u2019t share much about her experiences in the Holocaust. There were three stories \u2013 one about bread in Auschwitz, another about her tattoo, a third about washing \u2013 none of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8117,1802,7219,463,2364],"class_list":["post-29819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-claire-sicherman","tag-high-holidays","tag-holocaust-centre","tag-schara-tzedeck","tag-vhec"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}